This thesis investigates how faith-based organizations (FBO’s) operating in inter-faith contextsconduct identity-building processes to answer the research question “How can we understand theidentity-building processes of Christian faith-based organizations operating in Muslim countries?”.Hence, the author seeks to explore the role of Christian FBO’s in the international arena and thestudy of International Relations through the case study of WorldVision Jordan, a Christianorganization working within a predominantly Muslim country with mostly Muslim participants. Thethesis emphasizes the colonial as an indispensable part of Christianisation and humanitarianism andargues that the interfaith relations at play need to be understood within a double-subaltern context.Thus, a colonial conscious framework based on social constructivism and postcolonial IR theory isbuilt and its theoretical, conceptual and methodological implications then serve as a basis for theanalysis. WV’s identity-building processes are discursively analysed according to Schneider’s(2013) toolbox approach thereby evaluating not only the empirical data as such, but also itssurroundings, production, and context. Through the analysis of the organizations discursivelyconstructed Self against several Others, the thesis reveals a distorted self-perception and how theorganization pursues specific goals of religious persuasion

This project is an active exploration of subjectivities through the medium of weaving. In a narrative illustrated with woven works, the emotional trajectory of this person of mixed cultural background through Swedish society is described. First, the work is contextualized in terms of the larger politico-cultural-discursive context, entitled the outside. It is then positioned in terms of the individual context, the inside, largely dramatized as the developments in the art of western tapestry in the past century. This culminates in the final works, three of which are presented in the final exhibition. They are entitled monads, the etymology of which, in Greek, relates to the words one, alone, or singularity. Each is a conceptual microcosm proposing a different light distribution scheme. They are imprints of alternative actualizing tendencies. There could only be one; at the end of the experiment, Schrodinger’s cat is either dead or alive. The collapse involves the very structure of the ground, and is therefore embedded directly into the weave structure. But remember, each act of observation is an irreversible disturbance to the system. In the interpretation of the primary emanation arises difference, but in which direction will the pendulum swing, and on what forces does its motion hinge? Do subjectivities follow the locality assumption? Do you produce subjectivities or do they produce you?

In his 1978 biography of Grace Carpenter Hudson, Searles R. Boynton refers to the artist as "the best in California," praising her life-long dedication to depicting the Pomo children of Northern California. During her lifetime (1865-1937), Hudson's work traveled to museums, world fairs, and expositions across the United States. The purpose of this research is to assert that Hudson's work is evidence of, and a response to, turn-of-the-twentieth-century Euro-Americans' hopes that the American Indian child could be "redeemed," or "saved," from their "savage" or "undomesticated" past. Additionally, this paper aims to convince the reader of the significance of Hudson’s art as it marks an implicant, although paramount, shift in the history of representation of the American Indian child. To accomplish these tasks, it will be necessary to investigate artwork featuring the American Indian child produced before and after Hudson, the artist’s early influences, along with the artist's own work and words. Based on these sources, this thesis attempts to identify how viewers can understand the popularity of Hudson's work as a point of transference that existed between representation and reality during a period of the simultaneous rejection and resurrection of the American Indian. Through a process of perpetuating ideologies, the manipulation of the studio, subject, and space, and modernist influences regarding Indigenous peoples, the work that Hudson produced is emblematic of a time in which the larger American public was more interested in the proliferation of Euro-centric ideals than the preservation of American Indian life and culture.

In this essay, I investigate how the historic and current economic structures operating in Appalachia from the 1920s to the 2010s are represented in two contemporary Southern Appalachian novels – Serena (2008) by Ron Rash and Flight Behavior (2012) by Barbara Kingsolver. Through the lens of postcolonial theory, I show how Serena represents Appalachia as functioning under the colonial model outlined by Robert Blauner and Helen Mathews Lewis in 1978. Then, still under the theory of postcolonialism, I explore how Kingsolver’s work depicts regional identity in response to a post-colonial environment and the ever-expanding global economy.

By examining Cambodia as a case study, this thesis is exploring the resonances and dissonances between “Western” discourse reflected in US policies and NGOs and women’s experiences of sex work and trafficking. The massive attention to human trafficking driven by the US “War on trafficking” has undoubtedly had tremendous consequences on women’s lives in Cambodia, as the US still exerts a very prominent influence on the country especially through development aid. Examining the discourse upheld by US policies and NGOs in relation to that particular issue and comparing it to Cambodian women’s lived experiences allows us to reflect on the possible power relations that still subsist in the representations of sex trafficking. Taking a post-colonial perspective, this study uncovers the problematic “Othering” imbued in US discourse, creating a patronizing attitude towards “non- Western” women onto whom the victim status is projected, therefore reproducing colonial tropes. The result is that women’s voices and their multilayered experiences are silenced and remain largely unexplored. When listening to the women and those working close to them we learn that sex, money, desire, love, kinship, and Khmer norms all come together to influence women’s decisions to migrate and to enter the sex industry. In Cambodia, there is a complex interplay between structural factors, social obligations and personal desires which is crucial to understand sex work and trafficking. In other contexts, this interplay of factors might take different forms but structural conditions must always be examined and labor migration and participation must be linked to the context-specific economic, political and ideological landscape in which women act.

The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of how second-generation immigrants with Iraqi backgrounds navigate through and adapt to their identity formation processes in relation to Swedish society.  Previous research has examined other ethnic groups of second-generation immigrants and has provided insights that contribute to our study, but there is limited research on second-generation immigrants with Iraqi backgrounds, even though Iraqis are one of the largest groups that have immigrated to Sweden since the 1980s. To achieve the study's purpose and answer the research question, we have chosen to conduct a qualitative study based on 10 qualitative semi-structured interviews with second-generation immigrants with Iraqi backgrounds between the ages of 18 and 30. The results of the study have been analyzed using the following theories: postcolonial perspective, symbolic interactionism and the following theoretically grounded conceptual definitions: identity, in-betweenness, gender patterns and gender regime. The findings of the study reveal that second-generation immigrants with Iraqi backgrounds find themselves in a state of in-betweenness, where they do not fully identify as neither Iraqis nor Swedes. Furthermore, our study shows that cultural, social, and symbolic interactions influence second-generation immigrants with Iraqi backgrounds and their identity formation process, as a symbolic act reinforces an individual's identity. Adaptation to Swedish society is limited for second-generation immigrants with Iraqi backgrounds due to the differing perceptions and expectations of these two cultures regarding what is accepted and deviant, influenced by Iraqi culture and religion.

The impacts and influences of globalised digitalisation has increased its presence within the political structures of both international economic and international security regimes, and the rise of e-governance systems and digital security technology has probed IR scholarship to study this policy shift from traditional forms of governance to digital ones. Less considered here is how digitalisation has been extended to the international humanitarian governance regime. Digital tools are increasingly being produced and employed within international humanitarian interventions. However, despite the rapid mobilisation of these digital technologies, humanitarian crises and their corresponding interventions are becoming more frequent and more prolonged and the assumed benefits of these well-intending digital tools are failing to improve the lives of their beneficiaries. While evaluations of these interventions are not lacking, the preoccupation of material, quantitative assessments of humanitarian missions erroneously neglect the perspectives and experiences of their intended beneficiaries. In this regard, the paper seeks to problematize the methods in which humanitarian practitioners produce and implement their digital aid in a critical study into the political and normative structures which shape the design of digitised humanitarian governance. Post Colonial theory is recalled as a central, anchoring framework from which its concepts of racialisation, hegemonic identity reconstruction, and exploitation will be theory-tested via public policy analysis to the research’s case study. Here, the ‘neutrality’ of humanitarian governance is debunked, and hidden lineages of coloniality within the UNHCR’s mandate in the Rohingya refugee emergency are brought to the fore.

In the last two decades, there has been a significant rise in women’s rights Non-Govermental Organizations (NGOs) in Nepal, working on issues ranging from economic and political empowerment to violence against women and discrimination. Most of these local NGOs rely on international funding to pursue their advocacy and project work. This brings up questions of power imbalance regarding decision-making and agenda setting in their relations with donor International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) as the latter wield substantial financial control. Academic and practice-based research on power dynamics between donor INGOs in the Global North and recipient NGOs in the Global South has mainly focused on the benefits of NGO involvement in the development sector. Drawing on postcolonial, transnational feminist theories, this study uses a critical perspective to identify and explore possible power imbalances and explores the following key issues: Funding sustainability, accountability, collaboration, and cooperation between local and international women’s rights NGOs, and finally, local ownership. The inquiry builds upon empirical data from in-dept interviews with local and international women’s rights NGOs working in Kathmandu and the limited available secondarysources on the situation in Nepal. The findings point to clear power asymmetries, with local NGOs having to conform to Western standards in project design, implementation, reporting and monitoring, leaving limited space for flexibility or considering the situation on the ground. Nonetheless, this study also concludes that NGOs are not under the complete influence of their international donors, as suggested by some literature, but rather use the available space to maneuver and push their cause. Finally, based on the insights of this research and considering new initiatives that attempt to transcend the current donor-recipient power dynamics, this study identifies a handful of potential principles to guide more equitable relations between women’s rights NGOs and donors.

In this thesis, I explore positions of power in transnational human rights education, using The Raoul Wallenberg Institute as example in a case study. I am interested to know how human rights knowledge is produced and transferred in a global system of human rights education. My research focuses on positions of power in this global system, on challenges   and practical solutions, and on if and how education can contribute to decolonisation processes. I analyse four interviews with employees at RWI, who are working with transnational human rights education. The interviews, and supporting formal documents published by RWI, are analysed through close textual analysis, organised by key topics of transnational human rights education. As a theoretical framework to understand knowledge transfer, I use Stone’s concept of policy translation. For a post-colonial perspective and as tool to understand claims for decolonising transnational human rights education, I use Spivak’s concept of the subaltern as well as her request for ethical reflection of Western privileges.   The conclusion of my thesis shows a firm commitment of RWI to localisation, with methods embedded in their concept of transnational human rights education. There are some, but few attempts by the Institute to reflect on their own position in a global system of power linked to the production and transfer of knowledge, which hinders attempts of decolonising transnational human rights education.

長期以來，因為「九七回歸」、「一國兩制」等因素，台灣對香港的政治研究，多半將關注的焦點放在上層的政治制度，如行政長官（特首）、立法會的選舉和職能，亦或是政治民主化的討論。本文認為，一個地方的基層政治，如何的發展？具有什麼樣的成長過程？才是影響其政治文化產出的基礎。因此，本文以Lefebvre、Soja的空間理論、後殖民學者Chatterjee的政治社會理論，做為進入香港基層政治田野中的認識論基礎；透過歷史和社會學新制度主義的途徑，以區議會和區議員做為研究標的，來瞭解現今香港基層政治的面貌與對於香港政治文化發展的意義。 / 研究結果發現，香港雖然經歷了1997年的「解殖」，但因為來自《基本法》和「主權」的制約因素，所以基層政治制度發展仍然無法脫離過去殖民時期的脈絡。區議會擁有在最多數直選代表的組織，仍是被「吸納」、「鎖進」特區政府的地方行政管治主導架構當中，讓區議會只能發揮它代表基層民意接受來自特區政府的「諮詢」，而無法在制度上發揮充份制衡或影響行政權的能力。這符合了「政治社會」對於後殖民時期下的政治制度與底層人民參與之間距離的解釋。此外也發現，1997年之後來自於中國的新移民，在漸漸取得香港選舉的投票資格之後，也將開始影響未來香港的選舉和政治發展。 / 雖然香港的民主派持續地將民主制度、普選制度，放在香港政治發展過程中，作為一個很重要的追求目標。但是從回顧過去歷史的發展，到現在香港基層代議政治運作，以及未來發展的模式來看；代議民主、地方自治的那種「自主性」，並不是香港基層政治制度演變的重心。而基層民意代表組織對於民眾的意義，也集中在於提供類似「社會服務」的功能。即便所謂擴大區議會職能的改革計劃，也是包括在「地方行政」的思維中來推行，區議會仍然是輔助「行政權」的「委託」組織，而不是有能力和行政權並行的「自治組織」。如此，這就是本文所言，在民眾、區議會和區議員對於地方代議組織，角色認知的「異化」。毫無疑問地，這樣的「異化」，對於如民主派想建構的「民主政治制度」是有不小的落差。甚至最後就有可能將解殖後的香港政制，不斷地鎖回到殖民時期的風貌上。而這究竟是集體政治文化的選擇？亦或是主權者有意識的操作？不可否認的，本文認為，這兩種特性都存在於現在香港的基層政治文化當中。區議員的價值和地位，因為角色認知的「異化」，有可能不會更加弱化，但暫時似乎也找不到往地方自治方向再提升的動力了。脫離了殖民統治之後，香港市民應該有更多的正當性可以藉由選舉投票、公民集體運動來展現他們的聲音；香港未來的政治文化會往哪個方向走，現在的基層政治將會是塑造的起點。 / For a long terms, due to factors such as ”Handover in 1997”, ”One Country Two Systems”, Taiwan’s political research on Hong Kong is usually focused on the political system on the upper layer, for example, the administrative officer (Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), the election and function of Legislative Council, or the discussion on political democracy. In this article, it was thought that how the Local Politics is developed, what kind of growth process it has is the basis to affect the political and cultural output. Therefore, in this article, the Space Theory of Lefebvre, Soja, the Political Society theory of Post-colonialism Chatterjee is used as the basis to enter the rural epistemology of the Local Politics of Hong Kong; through the path of historical and social new system principle, District Council and District Councilor are used as research targets to understand the meaning of the current Hong’s face of Local Politics on the political and cultural development of Hong Kong. / It is found from the research result that although Hong Kong has passed through the ”de-colonialism” in 1997, yet because of the limiting factors from “Basic Law” and ” sovereignty”, its development in Local Politics system still can not escape from the past path of colonial period. District Council is an organization that owns the largest number of directly elected representatives, yet it is still ”absorbed”, ”locked into” the main structure the local administrative government of the Special Region Government; therefore, District Council can only exploit its function to represent the people’s opinions to accept the ”consultation” from the Special Region Government, and its capability to fully balance or affect the administrative power in the system can not be exploited. This meets the explanation of the distance between the political system and the participation of the people in the bottom layer in the post-colonialism period from ”Political Society”. In addition, it is also found that the new immigrants from Mainland China after 1997, after the gradual acquisition of the election right in the local election of Hong Kong, they start to affect the future election and political development in Hong Kong. / Although the democratic party of Hong Kong continues to put democratic system and general election system into the political development process of Hong Kong to be used as a very important pursuit target, yet if we take a look from a review of the past historical development to the to the basic representative politic operation in modern Hong Kong, as well as future development model, Representative Democracy and “autonomy” of local self-government is not the evolution center of Local Politics system in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the meaning of the basic representative organization of the public’s opinion is centered around the supply of the function similar to ”social service”. Even the improvement project for the expansion of the function of District Council is also included in the thinking of ”local administration” for the implementation; District Council is still a “consigned” organization to assist ”the administrative right” but not a ”Self-government organization” that has both power and administrative right. Therefore, this is what is mentioned in this article, this is ”alienation” among the public, District Council and District Councilor on the recognition of the local representative organization and role. No doubt, such ”alienation” has a pretty much gap to the ”Democratic political system” that the democratic party is going to build. It is even possible that the political system of Hong Kong after de-colonial period is continuously locked into the look in the colonial period. But is this the choice of group political culture or the conscious operation of the top level people who owns the power? Undeniably, it is thought in this article that both these characteristics all exist in the current Local Politics culture of current Hong Kong. The value and position of District Councilor, due to the ”alienation” of role recognition, might not be further weakened, but it is temporarily difficult to find power for the enhancement toward the direction of local self-government. After the escape from colonial governing, residents of Hong Kong should have more justification to send out their voices through voting in an election and the civic group movement; where the future politic and culture of Hong Kong is going to head toward, the current Local Politics is going to be a starting point for its final shape.